Proverbs: An Expository Commentary

Overview

Proverbs: An Expository Commentary offers an insightful elucidation of Proverbs for those accustomed to reading the common-sense epigrams and aphorisms comprising the book. As Ironside says in the preface, “…it is just because its chapters abound in pithy truisms that the marrow is often lost sight of by those who have been accustomed to hearing of reading them all their lives. The present work is an attempt to press home upon the heart and conscience, with a view to the increase of every-day godliness, this distinctively practical portion of the word of God.”

Examining the book verse by verse, Ironside’s commentary is packed full of inspiring and edifying observations. The work also includes a helpful introduction and outline. First published in 1908 as Notes on the Book of Proverbs, the volume’s is still a valuable Bible study resource nearly a hundred years later.

Known best for his world-wide preaching ministry, H.A. Ironside’s commentaries on every book of the New Testament and of the Old Testament Prophets are considered by Tim LaHaye and Michael D. Stallard to be, “some of the warmest and most cherished devotional commentaries in the history of dispensationalism.” Derived from stenographic recordings of his sermons and later edited into book form, their style “is characterized by devotional exposition, the simple outline of complicated issues, a creative ability to provide fresh wording and illustrations aimed at warming the heart and changing the life, and a continuation of the heritage of simple Bible readings that were emphasized in the Niagara Bible Conferences of the late nineteenth century” (Lahaye, Stallard).

Product Details

Author: H. A. Ironside

Publication Date: 1920

Pages: 485

About H. A. Ironside

(from the Evangelical Dictionary of Theology)

Popular Bible teacher, evangelist, pastor, and author. Born in Toronto, Canada, “Harry” Ironside moved with his family to California in 1886. There at the age of fourteen he was converted and began to preach. After a brief period as a Salvation Army officer, Ironside resigned because he no longer accepted the holiness view of “entire sanctification.” He joined the Plymouth Brethren and started what would become a highly successful itinerant ministry of preaching and teaching. Though essentially self-taught, he was always in high demand as an expositor at Bible conferences and institutes. From 1925 to 1943, he served as a visiting professor at Dallas Theological Seminary. From 1930 to 1948 he was pastor of Moody Memorial Church in Chicago, a position that earned him considerable criticism from the Plymouth Brethren, who reject the idea of “one-man ministries” and of receiving a stipulated salary for preaching the gospel. During a preaching tour of New Zealand, Ironside suffered a fatal heart attack and was buried in Auckland in January, 1951.

In addition to his itinerant and pastoral ministries, Ironside is best known for his prolific literary output. He produced close to a hundred major books and pamphlets, mainly on expository and prophetic themes. Ironside was a major figure in the popularizing of dispensationalism among American evangelicals and for the most part followed the views of the Scofield Reference Bible.